Vocab:

Monopoly - the exclusive possession or control of the supply of or trade in a commodity or service

Vertical integration - when a business takes control of all the stages in production or distribution thereby owning all parts of the industrial process

It helps companies have full control over their business (cut out middleman)

Horizontal integration - when a business grows by purchasing related businesses, namely its competitors

It helps companies expand in size, reduce competition, and create monopolies

Single Proprietors - control over your own business

No control over market, more competition, gain all lose all

Pooling arrangements - partnership where companies agree to share costs and profits

It keeps prices up and competition down, but aren’t always reliable because non binding

Trusts - an arrangement that allows a third party to hold assets (financial corporation)

It gives more control over market, pool resources and lower production costs, binding, limit competition, and multiple people control several companies

If all companies join a board of trustees, then it can create a monopoly

Holding companies - parent business that holds a controlling stock of other companies

Doesn’t manufacture anything, sell products, or services

Social Darwinism - theory that people are subject to the same laws of natural selection as plants and animals

Idea that certain people are powerful in society because they are better

Survival of the fittest

GDP - measure of overall health of country

Laissez-faire - a policy or attitude of letting things take their own course, without interfering, hands off

It allowed businesses to run wild

Supply and Demand - interaction between sellers and buyers

Price and quantity are inversely connected

The law of demand says that at higher prices, buyers will demand less of an economic good.

The law of supply says that at higher prices, sellers will supply more of an economic good.

These two laws interact to determine the actual market prices and volume of goods that are traded on a market.

Several independent factors can affect the shape of market supply and demand, influencing both the prices and quantities that we observe in markets.

Trusts and Monopolies:

Company Towns - a place where all stores and housing are owned by one company that is the main employer

Pullman IL - Factories began to replace small industries, restricted worker’s housing because they were forced to live in provided housing, provided the residents with basic needs and services, employees were compelled to obey rules in which they had no say, led to strike

Captains of Industry/Robber Barons:

Millionaires:

Machine Politics/Gangs:

• Organizations linked to a political party that often controlled local government

• Gave jobs/services for votes

• Targetted immigrants because they didn’t have knowledge of political parties and were desperate for jobs

• Political machines worked to ensure that their candidates were elected and made sure the city gov worked to their advantage

• Voter turnout increased because it incentivized voting and many people voted multiple times

• Boss controlled jobs, business licenses, and influenced court systems

• Gov at all levels saw itself as a provider of essential services such as roads and as an advocate of justice but not as responsible for the welfare of individuals

• William Tweed was the head of Tammany Hall, NY’s democratic political machine

• Led Tween Reign a group of corrupt politicians in defrauding the city

• Delivered votes to elected officials which would give him the loyalty of elected officials

• Lot of loyal votes were immigrants because they helped with jobs, housing, and more

• Conditions in cities were really bad

• Little sanitation, not enough room for people, really smelly

• Many immigrants didn’t have much money and weren’t paid well

• Little police force so gangs provided protection

• Ganges got really bad so police force became organized

• Gangs used violence and mutiple voting tactics to rig elections which gained them patronage

• Bill the Butcher didn’t like immigrants because he thought they took jobs from them

• Nativists thoughts jobs should go to natives before immigrants

• Tammany Hall was a political machines that was used to gain power

• Politicans used gangs to gain suppor

• Ganges grew beards, voted, then shaved, and voted again

• Tweed helped immigrants by giving them a place in society and votes

• Women and children had to resort to crime in order to survive, they weren’t suspicious

• Tweed stole money from the city by building the US country court house

• Jacob Riis photographed people’s living conditions to show the wealth gap

• Thomas Nast’s cartoons led to the downfall of Boss Tweed

Labor Unions:

Techniques workers used to gain better working conditions:

• Primarily used strikes but most weren’t successful

• Srikes were supposed to force the company to suffer until they agreed to workers’ terms but companies were so powerful it wasn’t effective

• If workers got enough sympathy they could do boycotts which were sometimes successful in small towns

• If workers got enough sympathy they could do boycotts which were sometimes successful in small towns

• In desperate times, workers resorted to sabotage

Strike - ​​Employees refuse to work until their demands are met.

Picketing - Parading in front of the workplace

Boycott - Workers and general public refuse to purchase products and services of a company

whose workers are striking

Closed Shop - Agreement between employer and union that the company will hire only union workers

Union Made - Special label placed on product signifying it was made by union labor

Tactics that businesses used to exploit their workers:

• Bosses enacted lockouts which were a reverse strike

• The owner would tell the employees not to bother showing up until they agreed to a pay cut

• Make new workers sign a yellow dog contract which swore that they wouldn’t join a union

• Employers often hired strike breakers which usually ended in violence

• Bosses persuaded courts to issue injunctions that made strikes illegal

• If stikes continued to happen, strikers would be thrown in jail

Overall Unions wanted:

• Gov regulation

• 8-hour work days

• Better working conditions

• Higher wages

Unionization:

• Industrial unions are organizations made up of people who all work within the same industry or type of industry service

• A public service union is an organized group of people who have careers that serve the general population. These unions usually represent those with the same or similar job type within a specific public service industry]

• A federation is an organized group of one or more unions

Grange Movement (1867):

• Movement when a group of farmers particularly in the Midwest fought to increase their political and economic power

• Patrons of Husbandry to bring farmers together for educational and social purposes

• The organization was divided into local units called Granges

• Farmers in the movement wanted action against monopolistic railroads that charged high rates for transporting farmers’ crops, bad weather, foreign competition drives down price, high tariffs and high cost of farm machinery

• In 1871 Illinois farmers got the state legislature to pass a bill fixing max rates that railroads could charge

• More states passed similar legislation which reached the Supreme Court as the Granger cases in 1877

Election of 1868:

• R nominated Grant

• Platform - reconstruction of the south

• Grant wanted peace

• Revived gory memories of the Civil war for platform

• Wealthy eastern D wanted fed war bonds to be redeemed in gold

• Poor midwestern delegrates wanted Ohio Idea - redemption of paper money

• D in debt wanted to keep money in circulation with lower interest rates

• D nominated Horatio Seymour, who refused the Ohio Idea

• Grant won

• Even though most white voters supported Seymour, former slaves voted for Grant

Bessemer Process (1872):

• Bessemer process was a method of making cheap steel

• William Kelly discover that cold air blown on red hot iron caused the metal to become white hot by igniting the carbon and eliminating impurities

Credit Mobilier (1872):

• Insiders from Union Pacific railroad created credit mobilier construction company and hired themselves with inflated prices

• Gov officials were accused of accepting bribes

Election of 1872:

• Liberal republican party formed because they wanted purification of washington administration and end to military construction

• Nominated Horace Greeley

• D supported Greeley

• R wanted Grant

• Grant won

Panic of 1873:

• Railroad promoters laid more track, built factories, etc than markets could handle because they thought post war time would go on forever

• Banker made loans to finance those enterprises

• Freedmen's saving and trust company made loans to companies

• Black depositors invested in banks

• When profit failed to materialize loans, everything crashed

• Worst for farmers and debtors

• Triggered great depression

• People lost jobs, were broke, couldn't afford basic necessities

Whiskey Ring (1875):

• Group of people who bribed gov officials to avoid paying excise tax on liquor

• A group of officials were importing whiskey and using their offices to avoid paying the taxes on it

• Cheated the treasury out of millions of dollars

Resumption Act of 1875

• The government was to withdraw greenbacks from circulation and begin in 1879 to redeem all paper currency in gold

• "Hard-money" advocates came out on top

• Also helped to spur the utilization of silver as backing for American currency because it replaced fractional money in silver coins

Election of 1876:

• Some wanted Grant to run for a third term but it was shut down

• R chose Hayes

• D chose Tilden

• Both sent statesmen to Louisiana, SC, and FL

• All 3 states submitted two sets of returns, 1 D and 1 R

• If president of senate chose R would win

• If speaker of house chose D would win

• Hayes won

Railroad Strike of 1877:

• First general strike

• Series of violent rail strikes

• The country was in its 4th year of economic depression after the panic of 1873

• They were caused by wage cuts made by the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad

• Railway works was already poorly paid and dangerous

• Railroad companies took advantage of the economic troubles to break the trade unions that had been formed by the workers

• Strikers wanted the wage cuts to be revoked

• The strikes started with Gus Harris refusing to work a double header and the rest joined

• By the end the strike ended primarily due to gov interference and the use of state militias

• The strike didn’t accomplish much

• Some politicians talked about labor reforms but nothing came out of it and industrialists continued to cut wages and break unions

Farmer’s Alliance (1877):

• A movement that sought to improve the economic conditions for farmers through organizations and political advocacy

• Pulled Grange Movement together

• Farming was hard because of drought, high fees for transportation of goods, and interest rates on loans were high

• Wasn’t political at first but became political because they needed the power of gov

• One organization was the national farmers’ alliance which stemmed from the Granger movement

• Focused on isolation and economic clout

• Many organizations set up stores that sold goods at lower prices and established mills and store houses to help decrease the costs to farmers of bringin goods to market

• They succeeded in local elections but not nationally

• Leaders of the farmer’s alliance founded a political party in 1892, to pursue their goals

Munn v Illinois (1877):

• A case where the court upheld the power of gov to regulate private industries

• Developed as a result of the Illinois legislature’s responding to pressure from the National Grange by setting max rates that private companies could charge for the storage and transportation of agricultural products

• Supreme Court decided that states did have the right to regulate those businesses that served important public purposes, such as railroads and grain elevators.

• Drew an important distinction between interstate commerce (fed gov controlled) and domestic commerce (state controlled)

Bland Allison Act (1877):

• After the Coinage Act of 1873 discontinued the coinage of US silver dollars, the world market price of silver fell

• Demand decreased because US stopped using it as a monetary standard and Europe establish gold as the standart for basic unit of currency instead of silver

• Supply increased because large silver deposits were discovered but silver mining companies suffered with no orders from US mints

• This act was the first victory for silverites although the act was a compromise

• It required the US Treasury to buy a certain amount of silver and put it into circulation as silver dollars

• Vetoed by Hayes but Congress overroad

• Goal was to subsidize the silver industry and inflate prices

• “Cheap Money” advocates - supply of money/credit too restricted (farmers, debtors, working class), inflation/more money in circulation/value in money goes down

• “Hard Money” advocates - Believe that inflation destroys peoples’ trust in economic system and drives up prices of all goods (entrepreneurs, rich class), deflation/less money in circulation/value in money goes up

Blaine and Conkling:

• The Stalwarts were in favor of political machines and spoils system-style patronage, while the Half-Breeds, were in favor of civil service reform and a merit system

Election of 1880:

• R chose Garfield/Arthur

• D chose scott Hancock

• Garfield won

Garfield Assassination (1881):

Secretary Blaine has issues with Conkling

• Guiteau shot Garfield

• Guiteau was an insane guy who thought he deserve a place in office

• Arthur is now prez

• Garfield was a part of the Half-Breed faction of the Republican Party

• Arthur was apart of the Stalwart faction

• The expected implication of the assassination was that after Arthur took over as president, he would replace the Half-Breed Republican employees with Stalwarts

• The death of Garfield shocked politicians into reforming the spoils system

• The reform was supported by President Arthur

Chinese Exclusion Act (1882):

• provided an absolute 10-year ban on Chinese laborers immigrating to the United States

Pendleton Act of 1883:

• Provided that fed gov jobs be awarded on the basis of merit and that gov employees be selected through competitive exams

• Made it unlawful to fire or demote for political reasons

• Passed in order to prevent the constant reward to loyal party members

• The gov created the merit system which included competitive written exams for job applications

• Created Civil Service Commission which oversaw the process and prevented officers from requiring fed employees to contribute to political campaigns

• Effective in ending spoils system

Election of 1884:

• D chose Cleveland

• R chose Blaine

• Cleveland won

Knights of Labor:

• Promoted the social and cultural uplift of the worker

• An eight-hour work day

• The abolition of child labor

• Improved safety in factories

• Equal pay for men and women

• Compensation for on-the-job injury

• Consisted of non producers

• Excluded Chinese

• Included skilled and nonwork skilled workers

• Unskilled workers could easily be replaced but skilled workers couldn’t and use that to their advantage to bargain

• Skilled got tired and eventually sought refuge in American Federation of labor

Haymarket (1886):

• Chicago police had a meeting to stop laborers who gathered to protest for 8 hour work day

• bomb was thrown

• Police gunfire

• Lots of violence

• Police caught 8 people and even though there was no proof they were charged

• 5 died, one committed suicide, and other three went to jail

• Governor of Illinois let them go later

• Knights were associated with the bomb because they wanted 8 hour work days

• Knights eventually lost strikes and disbanded

• Creation of American Federation of Labor

American Federation of Labor:

• Organize skilled workers into national unions consisting of others in the same trade

• Big umbrella organization

• Softer attempts at social reforms

• Wanted better wages, hours and working conditions

• Used walk out or boycott

• War chest to help prolonged strikes

• Consisted of skilled craftsman, carpenters, and brick layers

• Non political but did attempt to persuade people to reward or punish at the polls

• Weakness was only including a small minority of people

Wabash v Illinois (1886):

• Declared that states couldn’t regulate commerce that went beyond their boundaries

• Instead regulation had to come from fed gov

• When railroad lines crossed states who would control rates got confusing

• Wabash St. Louis and Pacific Railraod company challenged Illinois

• The fed gov established the interstate Commerce Act, first regulatory commission in the country

Interstate Commerce Act (1887):

• Required that railroads charge fair rates to their customers and make those rates public

• Also created the interstate Commerce Commission which had the authority to prosecute companies who violated the law

• Main purpose of the act was to limit monopolistic practices of railroad industry

• Forbade unfair discrimination against shippers in outlawing charging more for a short haul than a long haul

• First large scale attempt to regulate business by gov

Election of 1888:

• D chose Cleveland

• R chose Harrison

• Cleveland won popular

• Harrison won

Sherman Anti Trust Act (1890):

• First federal act that outlawed monopolistic business practices

• Passed by congress to promote competition within the economy by prohibiting companies from colluding or merging to form a monopoly

• Made trusts and monopolies illegal in interstate and international trade

• Passed to address concerns by consumers who felt they were paying high prices on essential goods and by competing companies who believed they were being shut out of their industries by larger corporations

• Successful against labor unions

• Ineffective because of vague language, no teeth/ineffective enforcement

Sherman Silver Purchase Act (1890):

• Panic of 1873 caused a higher demand for cheaper paper money

• Market price of silver dropped and became less expensive to mine

• Political influence of silver advocates grew so strongly that this act was passed to appease all interests

• Replaced Bland Allison Act

• Required the treasury to double its monthly purchase of silver

• Became a threat to treasury’s gold reserves and an increase in paper money in circulation

• Didn’t please anyone and left farmers/silver miners unhappy

• Treasury’s reserves led to Panic of 1893

• Act was repealed

McKinley Act (1890):

• Raised tariffs and financially hurt farmers

• Farmers were forced to buy expensive products from American manufacturers while selling their own products into the highly competitive world markets

• Caused the Republican Party to lose public support and lose their majority in Congress in the congressional elections of 1890

Homestead Steel Strike (1892):

• Violent dispute between the Carnegle Steel Company and its workers

• The contract between the union and Carnegie steel was set to expire

• Frick, the operations manager cut the workers wages ahead of time

• When the union rejected it he locked them out, built a barbed wire fence and then fired them

• Security guards arrived and the guards and workers exchanged gunfire

• It ended after the company asked PA governor to help and he sent soldiers

• Workers were replaced and the plant was operating again

• Eventually the union gave up

• It was not successful because their jobs were replaced and criminal charges were ledged against many union leaders and workers

• Some workers even reapplied aggreeing to a 12 hour work day and reduced wages

Populist Party (1891):

• A group of agrarian reformers that advocated a wide range of legislation

• While trying to broaden their base to include labor/other groups, they remained agrarian

• They demanded an increase in the currency, graduated income tax, gov ownership of railroads, tariff for revenu only, direct elections for senators, and more

• By fusing with Democrats in certain states they elected many members to Congress

Election of 1892:

• D chose Cleveland

• R chose Harrison

• Cleveland won

Panic of 1893:

• Caused by the collapse of railroad

• Farmers were evicted and homeless

• Congress repealed the Sherman Silver Purchase Act

• Workers were fired, couldn't pay for stuff

Pullman Strike (1894):

• Widespread railroad strike and boycott that disrupted rail traffic in the midwest

• Because of layoffs, wage cuts and firing workers at the Pullman Palace Car Company in Chicago went on strike

• Eventually railroad workers joined stifling the network in Chicago

• Edwin walker claimed the strike violated the Shurman Anti trust Act

• Cleveland used dispatch federal troops to address the strike and after some violence, the strike ended and rail traffic continued

• This brought attention to the power of the labor movement but it also opened the door to court/fed gov involvement in intervention of strikes

Election of 1896:

• McKinley (R) vs Bryan (D+P)

• McKinley won

• Populists disbanded

• Showed that country was still controlled by business

Strike in Lawrence MA (1912):

• Textile industry was big

• Mill owners at the American Wool Company in Lawrence reacted to a new state law reducing the number of hours that women could work to 54 hr per week by cutting the pay of their women mill workers

• Women at the mills went on strike

• The next day 10,000 textile workers walked of the job

• Many strikers met with an invitation to the Industrial Workers of the World to help with the strike

• They demanded 15% pay increase, 54 hr work week, overtime pay at double the normal rate, elmination of bonus pay which rewarded only a few, and encouraged all to work longer hours

• Violence occurred and IWW sent some of their best organizers

• Mill owners gave in because they were scared about what the gov would do after hearing the brutality

• Company increased pay

• “Bread and roses”

Paterson Silk Strike NJ (1913):

• Began when 800 workers walked off their jobs

• Joined by many more workers

• Manufacturers caused the strike when new machinery enabled them to double the number of looms per woker from 2 to 4

• Workers averaged 12 hr days and feared the machines would increase their work loads

• Workers united behind the IWW who sent organizers to help

• Unfortunately the machinery allowed mill owners to increase operations elsewhere and maintain profits

• Manufacturers initiated act of violence and their influence with politicians and police led to arrests

• As a last ditch effort workers staged the Paterson Strike Pageant at Madison Square Garden

• It got attention but little money

• Weavers returned to work, accepting miller’s terms and other strikers followed